Various types of medical instruments utilizing radiofrequency (RF) energy, laser energy and the like have been developed for delivering thermal energy to tissue, for example to ablate tissue. While such prior art forms of energy delivery work well for some applications, prior art RF and laser devices are not capable of ablating surfaces of cartilage to provide smooth surfaces. Further, such prior art devices cause unacceptable thermal damage to cartilage tissue.
What is needed are systems and methods that can controllably apply energy to fibrillated or damaged cartilage to smooth the cartilage without any thermal damage to the cartilage surface layers.